Hospitals Are Dangerous Places?

It's not really surprising that hospitals are an infection focus in a pandemic. It is still, however, sobering to learn estimates of people contracting Covid-19, whilst they were inpatients in the UK (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/26/40600-people-likely-caught-covid-while-hospital-inpatients-in-england). It seems likely, that well over 40,000 people (1 in 7) were infected by Sars-CoV-2, between 1st August 2020 and 31st March 2021, when visiting hospital for treatment of other conditions. This is in a relatively affluent country, having a free medical service and with relatively good protections. It's appreciated there were problems in the supply of personal protective equipment in UK hospitals at the start of the pandemic. The mandatory wearing of facemasks, when entering public buildings, also was also somewhat delayed. The figures still, however, seem to be inordinately high. Given the facts that a) Sars-Cov-2 is unlikely to go away and b) there will be other pandemics, measures to reduce infections in hospitals need to be 'beefed up'. This will be especially important as hospitals try to clear the backlogs of treatments for cancer, surgery etc.